Medical transport boards are boards that are generally used by emergency medical personnel for transporting accident victims. These boards, which are sometimes referred to as spine boards, are typically made of plastic, fiberglass, or other synthetic material and are designed to be lightweight but strong, stiff boards that prevent movement of a person strapped to the board during transport of the person.
Since these boards are commonly used to transport accident victims, the boards are frequently contaminated with blood or other body fluids and must be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected after each use. Historical methods of cleaning such boards include spraying the boards with water, soap solutions, disinfectants and manually scrubbing the boards by hand to remove any material on the boards.
A typical emergency rescue vehicle, such as an ambulance, will carry 4 spine boards onboard. In between operations it is important that these 4 boards can be cleaned rapidly so that the rescue vehicle is available for immediate usage if needed.
Recent trends have migrated towards utilizing automated wash systems to clean such boards between uses. The earliest entry into the field of automated spine board washing utilized stationary racks to hold and support the spine boards, and stationary spray nozzles directed at the spine boards in the racks. The spray nozzles are supplied a high pressure cleaning solution through a pumping system, which when directed towards the boards, impinges the blood or other body fluids from the surface of the boards. Advantages of this type of automated washing system are that it can be configured to wash multiple boards at a time. However, the disadvantage is that due to space constraints, the equipment is unable to impinge 100% of the spine board surface areas, therefore leading to ineffective cleaning.
A subsequent embodiment of the automated spine board washer utilized rotating spray arms in place of stationary nozzles on racking systems. The advantage of the rotating spray arms is that they are less expensive to construct and utilize because could effectively clean a spine board using less fewer nozzles and less water. The disadvantage of the rotating spray arms is that they consumed more space than the nozzles, and therefore, fewer spine boards could be cleaned simultaneously, again, creating longer than ideal wash times.
Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus that is functional to clean a plurality of spine boards simultaneously while effectively impinging 100% of surface areas of the spine boards.
Additionally, there is a need for an apparatus that is functional to clean a plurality of spine board simultaneously in a short period of time.
Additionally, there is a need for an apparatus that is functional to clean a plurality of spine board simultaneously that requires a small footprint.